The Alley
by noroomfordoubt
Summary: I was so caught up in my inner monologue about the beauty of the city that I almost didn't notice the bright colors on the ground and the two people crouched in front of me.
1. Meet the Neighbors

Chapter 1: Meet the Neighbors

Published 18/1/14 

There's something sort of funny about cities. Something special that's just out of reach in terms of my ability to articulate the English language. Cities, especially old ones, have the power to hide things away. They take these magical people and places and things and tuck them into corners, basements, and alleys.

It's easy to fall out of love with a city. Traffic alone can send any sane person running for the hills. Factor in the noise, smog, and unreliable public transportation systems and it's practically game over. Don't even get me started on food costs.

On any given day, a city can chew you up and spit you out for absolutely no reason, but it's those little secrets that keep us on our toes. The city's hidden gems that wait to be discovered, pulling you right back in like a lovesick fool.

Not everyone has such a romantic relationship with cities, but not everyone knows their city like I know mine.

That's what I was thinking about that morning.

Well, maybe not exactly that. I've never really been that good with words (unless I'm insulting somebody or calling them out on their shit). As far as I'm concerned, there was nothing else think about on what was going to be the warmest day of an already mild April.

I sat in my truck with the windows cranked down and the beat up speakers squeezing out smooth blues rhythms, just reflecting on the past few months as I drove to work. I turned right, sneaking past a mail truck into the alley that led to my shop.

I was so caught up in my inner monologue about the beauty of the city that I almost didn't notice the bright colors on the ground and the two people crouched in the alley in front of me.

"Woah! Shit!" I cursed, bringing my foot down hard on my truck's well-tightened breaks. I snapped out of whatever daydream I had been in and peered down at the two women on the smooth cobblestones and cement patch-jobs.

They scrambled to pick up the brightly colored sticks that lay practically everywhere and shove them into a box. Almost killing two people who had just been standing in the way of my truck had really shattered my good morning mood.

My temper tends to be short; Sebastian always says that my alter ego could kill a horse just by looking it in the eyes.

I squeezed hard on the cracking leather of the steering wheel, trying to be as cordial as possible. "Sorry guys," I said as I twisted the volume knob down on my truck's stereo, "wasn't expecting company in the alley at this early hour."

"No problem," laughed the younger of the two as she dusted off her shorts, "we were in your way. Had to get an early start for an arrow this big."

I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, and as I jumped between anger and total confusion I guess my face must have made my thoughts pretty clear because the other woman, the one with the relaxed posture and the blonde hair hanging in her eyes smiled smugly at me and pointed to the ground.

I stared blankly at the ground for a couple of seconds as my eyes adjusted to the transformation of the stones in front of my truck. Although it obviously wasn't complete, the ground was covered in a thick layer of brightly colored chalk, blended and outlined carefully to make it look as if a lit arrow sign fit for a flashy club was rising out of the normally dark red cobblestones.

"Impressive." I shrugged. It was cool, but I was on a schedule this morning. "Bye now." I mumbled, slowly driving off.

The alley is long. I used to think of it as "my" alley but eventually I realized that other people use it too. I think that sometimes I don't realize that other people exist in the same dimension as me, or that having a different way of seeing things doesn't make you a dumbass.

My shop is at the end of the alley. I like that because it lets me pretend that I have a great location on a busy corner and that there aren't sometimes bums peeing on the brick wall next to the window displays.

That's the downside. I'd be more upset about it if it weren't so funny to make people go out and hose it off when they show up late to work.

Being a cool, young boss isn't easy. I'm not afraid to mess with my employees, especially since most of them are my best friends.

"Are you gonna sit in the cab all day or are we actually going to make it to the recycling center this week?"

I sighed, looking to my left to see Sebastian leaning against the wall sipping some type of greenish juice and looking every part the douchey little hipster that he is.

"Slow your roll, asshole. I'm just waking up." I cut the engine and hopped out of the truck while calmly flipping him off. He laughed as I tossed him the keys to open up the employee entrance.

I still don't understand why I decided to hire Sebastian. His resume was fantastic: college educated, downtown-raised, well-off white boy who had internships at business offices and came highly recommended by some relatively big names. For some reason, he decided to work for me and now he's probably the most over-qualified bicycle mechanic in the entire city.

He's also fabulously gay, and in a constant state of starvation due to his excellent taste in clothing and fine food, and inability to ask "Daddy" for money. I tend to buy him lunch.

As Sebastian jimmied open the lock and turned off the shop's alarm system, I climbed up on a back tire and hoisted myself into the back of the truck. Grabbing my bike from where it rested on top of a cushion of tarps, I unlatched the gated back of the flatbed and carefully climbed out.

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's driving to work. Even after opening the shop and being surrounded by them all day, I've never gotten sick of bikes. They're fun to ride and they keep me in shape, and they can look damn sexy when designed well.

The last Thursday of every month was recycling center day. Sebastian and I always came in early and loaded up the back of my truck with all of the worn-out tires and tubes, bent rims, and other bits and pieces that piled up next to the bike rack by the back door.

If we got to the shop by five thirty we could make it to the RC and back in time to grab breakfast from the bakery down the street before anyone else even got in to work. It was a good routine, and I genuinely liked Sebastian. He and I were sort of kindred spirits. We could both be bitchy as hell, but our senses of humor were usually in synch and we worked well together.

I wheeled the bike in the back door and leaned it up against the nearest work bench before locking out and heading back outside to load up the junk. 

* * *

By lunchtime the light was streaming through the windows that wrapped around the front and side of the shop. Before I bought the place, the shop was an old-school grocery store with giant display windows that covered the front and half of the side that faced the alley. The old guy who works at the bakery that used to supply them told me that those windows had some of the best displays of food he'd ever seen.

A couple of years ago, or so I've been told, the family that owned the grocery got into some big feud over an inheritance check. When I first saw the empty windows and the "For Sale" sign last year, I jumped at the opportunity.

Whatever happened, those people were trying to get out of there quick, and the space was unbelievably cheap. I counted the day I signed the check to buy the building as the luckiest day of my entire goddam life.

When I moved into the shop we stripped out all of the shelves but kept the hardwood flooring and bright factory lights that were fixed to beams high up on the ceiling. The hardwood flooring can be a bitch, but it looks great. What used to be the food storage in back turned into a large workshop for my mechanics, though sometimes it also gets turned into Nerf gun World-War Three.

I kept my favorite part of the building the same, though. The guy that had owned it before me built a loft over what was once a deli. He put in a balcony so that he could stare down over the store and watch the aisles carefully because he seems to have been a penny-pinching prick, but what I loved the most was the office and kitchen that I could escape to whenever I wanted.

Half of my office is full of boxes with merchandise samples and the other half contains a couch that is usually being slept on by one of my lazy employees, but it's comfortable and I see it as my home-away-from-home.

I was leaning against the railing of the balcony and watching a man as he helped his young daughter try on a lady-bug helmet when I heard Sebastian yell up the stairs to me. "Yo! Lunchtime! Santana! Food! Now!"

"Coming!" I called, wondering why I let my employees yell at me like that when customers were around, and I headed down the twisting staircase. "Did you have any particular place in mind or are we in a hurry for absolutely no reason?" I asked, grabbing my sunglasses from the pocket of the jacket I'd worn to work.

"I didn't really have a plan, no. But you're paying." Sebastian said, grinning as I rolled my eyes.

I shouted a quick goodbye to Jake, who was standing behind the sales counter looking as bored and broody as usual, and headed out the back door behind Sebastian.

As we walked down the alley, Sebastian was chattering excitedly in my ear. I wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying, focusing instead on kicking a loose bit of brick, keeping it in front of me while matching his pace.

"…it looked so cool when I walked by, plus I've basically been waiting for that place to open forever. Aren't you excited to see how it turns out?"

It took a few moments for me to realize that Sebastian was actually talking to me. My attention span has always been a bit lacking.

"Repeat everything you said in the past three minutes, Seb, because I wasn't even on this planet."

He groaned, rolling his eyes again (signature move) and going on to explain to me that he'd been trying to discuss the opening of the new studio at the other side of the alley.

"What building is it in?" I asked, curious to know where this even was. "I didn't know that anyone had moved out, let alone moved in."

"Nah, dude," he laughed, pointing a little ways down the alley to where a couple of familiar figures were crouched, "it's in the alley. Where that brewery used to be, remember? You bitched for days when they moved to a bigger building."

I did remember. I had loved that goddam brewery. They had the best microbrews in the region and literally every person that worked there had been young and attractive. I tried to model my hiring strategy after theirs, because discrimination aside, what they had going was working.

"So, what's so exciting about this studio?" I asked, wondering when Sebastian had taken a sudden interest in places that made you pay for art. He had fantastic taste and a penchant for nice stuff, but he usually spent his money on nice clothes and expensive alcohol.

He shrugged and adjusted the backwards cap that he wore on his head, fixing his hair until it was perfect and returning the hat to what I call "the douchebag angle".

"Nothing's really exciting about the actual place, but they've got these two girls doing some sweet art on the sidewalk to promote the opening."

I groaned, realizing I knew just who he was talking about. "Them?" I questioned, pointing to the two girls who didn't seem like they'd moved since five that morning, "I actually almost hit them with my truck earlier. I thought they were just some fellow neighborhood hipsters trying to 'make our city beautiful'." My voice had a bit of scorn in it.

I wasn't really that mad at them for being in the alley, but I was embarrassed that I hadn't been paying attention. I jammed my hands into the pockets of my jeans and kept kicking my piece of brick.

I tend to lose my temper more easily in the morning. I'd left for the Recycling Center in a totally crap mood, but I was feeling a little more carefree now that the sun had fully risen.

Sebastian laughed half-heartedly. I guess my humor wasn't really on point today. "I have no idea who they are or where they actually work," he replied, "but when I asked them about it this morning they told me it was to promote the studio. I dunno, seemed pretty cool."

"I dunno, seemed pretty cool." I sing-songed, kicking the piece of brick at him as we approached the two blondes I'd encountered earlier.

"Wassup ladies?" Sebastian called, exaggerating the vowels as he launched into what I expected was a game of "Flirt with Straight Girls and Rob Santana of a Fighting Chance".

He does this a lot. I don't know why I feed him.

Both of them looked up from where they were crouched with what looked like volleyball knee-pads on their knees. At this point in the day, it was starting to get pretty warm. The alley spent most of the day in shade, except for a few hours in the afternoon when the sun was high in the sky.

I decided that I would refer to them as Blonde One and Blonde Two. They had their hair up and they were obviously overheated. Blonde Two seemed to be more around my age. She was the one with the choppy, shorter hair. Despite the weather, she looked calm and put-together. Her sweat didn't even look gross. Not fair.

Blonde One was struggling a bit more, poor girl. I can relate to that. My people don't usually show color, but if I was cycling through traffic on a day like that I'd probably be the doppelganger of a tomato.

"Hey," they said at the same time (creepy).

"Hey yourselves," said Sebastian (asshole), "how are things in the fancy arrow-chalking business?"

Both of them laughed, and Blonde One stood up to talk to us. Blonde Two went back to work on some fancy lettering.

"Business is booming. And we're basically done." She smiled and dusted off her hands. "I'm Tess", she said as she pointed to her face, "this is my boss, Quinn".

Quinn raised a hand and waved without looking up. Her brow was furrowed in a funny way as she used a stencil to fill in what seemed to be one of the last letters.

I think that Sebastian introduced us and told Tess where we worked, but I was staring at Quinn, mesmerized by her concentration. I'm a big fan of details, and the letters she was stenciling looked great. They were perfectly even and well-colored. "Q. Fabray Studio and Fine Art" was what I assumed would be the finished name of the studio once the last couple of letters were stenciled in.

"….Satan here is going to feed me, and we'll totally come by to see the finished thing."

I looked up, hearing Sebastian's voice use the stupid nickname that one of my friends from high school had given me.

"Stop calling me that." I said, growling at my carefree employee. So far, I was pretty sure I'd come off as rude and distant. First I almost hit them with my truck and now I was zoning out while being introduced.

Before I realized it, I was asking them if they needed anything in an attempt to seem like I wasn't a total bitch. Sebastian's mouth hung open in mock-horror as he most-likely prepared to make a joke about the outrage of me doing something neighborly.

Luckily, Tess cut him off.

"Actually, if you don't mind, our new sinks aren't really hooked up yet in the studio. We're kinda thirsty and we ran out of water about an hour ago. Is there any way we could get some water from your shop?"

She pointed to a crate that held all of their chalking materials and couple empty plastic bottles. I'm not a fan of disposable water bottles. I think it's probably because I own a bike shop, and we bike shop people are big on selling water bottles. Cyclists tend to collect them like playing cards.

"Yeah, for sure." I pulled out my wallet and handed Sebastian my credit card. Grabbing him by the chin, I held his face still and looked him in the eyes as I gave him his marching orders.

"Go to the deli and grab sandwiches while I get some water. Four sandwiches. Ask the ladies what they want." I turned towards Tess, who looked like she was about to protest. "Housewarming gift."

She nodded and smiled as she thanked me. She seemed like she smiled a lot. Off to the side, her boss plopped onto her butt next to the finished letters. She glanced up at me and slid her sunglasses over her eyes to protect them from the sun above my head. I just managed to catch their color before they were covered. Hazel.

"That's very kind of you, Santana. Tess can go help you while I clean this mess up. Wouldn't want anyone to run over my chalk with their truck." She smirked, and I caught another glint of hazel as she pushed her sunglasses up to wink at me. I blushed, feeling like a jackass for the umpteenth time that day. I don't know what it is about blondes, but they make me all kinds of nervous.

Quinn returned her sunglasses to her face and began to pick up the pieces of chalk. The rest of us went our separate ways but I walked backwards, pretending to yell at Sebastian but really just staring at Quinn's ass. I decided that I was allowed because I was doing a nice thing. Dat ass.

After I was done with my ogling sesh, I turned around to talk to Tess. "You look a little young to have a day job on a Thursday." I hoped I didn't sound like an old lady. Being twenty-seven and owning your own business makes you feel high and mighty sometimes. This girl looked like she was either still finishing or just out of high school.

She explained that she was taking a gap-year, and that Quinn was a family friend who she'd been working for over the past ten months. She had planned on going to art school starting in the coming fall semester, but Quinn's assistant would be taking a maternity leave and she was going to fill her position. I guess the girl was in no big rush to go to college, which I understood.

I'd been in and out of school as fast as possible. I regretted it a little bit, but that was only because college had been a three-year experience for me. Majoring in business wasn't easy. When you're a woman wearing jeans and a tank-top in classrooms full of immature smart guys in suits, college sort of sucks.

I'd wanted to own a bike shop ever since my father made me do a summer of work experience at the end of high school. He wanted me to spend all day filing papers in an office. I ended up spending half the day fixing bikes, and the other half fucking around with my co-workers. That was also the first time in my life I was comfortable being openly gay around other people, and I was really glad to have had that experience so young.

As we reached the back door of my shop, Tess was telling me about how excited she was for the shops new location.

I felt sort of nauseous. The kind of sick you feel when you're helplessly awkward. I was nodding and playing along pretty well, but I'm not really a people person.

I found out in college that there's a difference from being great at having sex with a lot of people, and being great at actually having friends. I don't excel at the latter. That's why I was sort of pissed at Sebastian for deciding to make two new friends.

When we got to the back of the shop I stood awkwardly in front of the employee entrance for a couple of seconds before I realized I was supposed to open the door. My blonde companion stared at her feet and laughed again.

Entering the back door was always hit-or-miss when it came to figuring out if someone had left something leaning in front of it, waiting to tumble down on top of an unassuming employee returning from a break. Luckily, there wasn't anything blocking the way when we entered.

I could see Puck standing with his back to the door as he assembled some new floor models. I looked between him and Tess and wondered if the two of us would be able to make it past him before he noticed and either made a joke about me being back so soon, or started hitting on Tess.

Luckily he was in his own little world as he pried a tire off a shiny new rim with some plastic levers. I gestured for Tess to follow me as she stared at the mess that was the back room.

When we got up to the kitchen I pulled out a cooler and started filling it up with ice from the freezer and water from the sink. I gestured to a bunch of the shop's custom bottles that were sitting in a drying rack by the sink.

"You can fill up a couple of those."

"Diablo Cycles. Nice name."

I laughed "Unoriginal as fuck, I know. My friends used to call me Satan, I'm a Latina, it worked."

"I like it."

"Thanks. Water filtration system's in the fridge."

She nodded and got to work. There was an awkward silence. I could sense her looking around and taking in the room.

"Do you live up here?"

I laughed and shook my head. "No, no. There's a kitchen and an office. Sometimes I fall asleep on the couch, but I do have an actual home."

"Well, this kitchen is pretty sweet."

I explained that all of the matching appliances were part of a gift from my family when the shop opened last year. I could never have afforded some of this stuff. The kitchen in my apartment wasn't even this nice.

As we headed back down the alley to the studio, I started to get sweaty. It was the gross, nervous kind of sweat. I was wondering what the hell I'd been thinking when I decided to buy these girls lunch. They probably thought that Sebastian and I were creepy, overly friendly neighbors. I usually go for the opposite impression. I hadn't really been able to get a good read on Quinn, but Tess seemed really friendly.

I guess Quinn was at least enjoying Sebastian's company, because when we walked up to where the two of them were seated in folding chairs, her head was tipped back in laughter.

"So I told him, if you're going to try to steal my wallet every time I close my eyes, I'm not gonna let you suck my- "

Sebastian stopped telling whatever nasty, nasty story he'd been in the middle of when he looked up to see us standing there. Tess had turned bright red from embarrassment and I was trying not to turn purple from wanting to rip his head off. I had known Quinn for about twenty minutes, but I could already tell she had too much class for Sebastian to be telling her about whatever he did last night.

"He's gay!" she laughed, wiping a stray tear of laughter from her eye "He's so fabulously, unexpectedly gay! I love it!" Her choppy hair was falling out of it's tiny ponytail, and her bangs were hanging over her sunglasses. She suddenly looked a lot younger than she had seemed earlier. More relaxed.

"He's a fairy princess." I said, and immediately regretted it when Sebastian replied.

"And she's a great big bull-dyke. And singleeee!"

I groaned, somehow managing to not turn red. Quinn flipped her sunglasses up and gave me a once-over.

"Eh, I'd go ahead and say chap stick lesbian. Too cute. Nice grease stains."

I glanced at my bare arms, only just noticing the black smudges that I must have picked up from recycling old parts at the RC that morning.

"Oh."

Sebastian smirked at my awkward response and help up the bag of sandwiches.

"Let's eat. Lunch break's almost over and my boss can be a real bitch."

We all laughed and helped ourselves to a large sandwich. The deli made them stacked with toppings, each one wrapped in butcher-paper to keep the heaping contents from sliding out. There was silence as everyone ate hungrily.

I looked down the alley from the glass double-doors of the new studio to the rusty back entrance of my shop. The distance was maybe a couple hundred feet.

I'd started the day thinking of this alley as my own. I was starting to think that maybe sharing it wasn't such a bad thing after all. 

* * *

Author's Note:

Hit me up with a review.


	2. The Week in Review

Chapter Two: The Week in Review

Published 20/1/2014

* * *

That was a week ago.

Since last Thursday, there hasn't been one day that we haven't seen the girls from Q. Fabray Studio and Fine Art.

It started off with small interactions.

On Friday I rode into the alley at my normal arrival time of 9 a.m. to see Quinn in front of the studio, hand painting the windowsill a pale orange to offset the red brick. It was a quirky color combination.

I waved, she waved. I said "good morning", she said it back. I pointed down the alley to my shop, she pointed at the paint can that she had balanced on a crate. I rode off awkwardly, she started to whistle. I mean seriously, who whistles?

* * *

On Saturday, the shop opened an hour later than on weekdays. I rode up to the employee entrance at 10 a.m. to find Tess sitting on the water cooler.

"I'm looking for more water, and possibly a favor."

"Well I've got the water, might have to dig around a bit for the favor. What's up?" I was proud of myself for sounding so cool and casual even though I was still intimidated by the new artsy neighbors.

Tess explained that they were getting all of their photo equipment brought in from storage since the paint had dried in all of the rooms. There was a lot of it, apparently, and only the two of them to move it in because Tina was too pregnant to really carry anything.

I told her that I might be able to rustle up some strong boys later if the business was slow. Thanks to Puck, who had seen the (attractive) female employees of the studio on his way back from lunch the day before and subsequently spread the word; there was no problem recruiting help.

There was so much whining about whose turn it was to go help out at the studio that I had to close the shop two hours early and let everyone go over there. Even Marley Rose wanted to see what all of the hype was about, and I was sure that she's as straight as they come.

Saturdays were our most profitable days, but I tacked a sign reading "closed to help the neighbors move in" to the door and headed down the alley.

* * *

Sunday was a slow day. Sundays were always slow, and my game plan was generally to help out on the floor or in the back during the morning, and spend the afternoon sleeping on the couch in my office. Usually it was only me, Jake, and Puck working, but Sebastian decided to blow off brunch with his family to hang around the shop.

When I came upstairs to take my afternoon nap, I found him sitting on the couch. His long legs were stretched out in front of him and he was hunched over his phone, grinning. He looked like a weasel.

"Guess who I'm texting?" he asked.

"The President."

"Think closer."

"The old man at the deli."

"Closer."

"Sebastian I will literally kill you."

I wasn't kidding. I was tired and hungry and the fridge wasn't stocked but the couch was calling to me.

"Chill out. I'm texting Tina from the studio."

"Why the fuck do you have Tina's number? When did you even talk to her?" I tried to imagine what Sebastian would have in common with the snappy pregnant Asian that seemed to lurk in the shadows of the studio. She and her possible vampire baby creeped me out. I couldn't understand how she worked with people who were as normal and sweet as Quinn and Tess.

"I talked to her yesterday", Sebastian sighed as if simply answering my question was a burden, "she has intel that Quinn and Tess are arguing over whether or not to invite us to lunch."

I didn't want to get caught up in Sebastian and Tina's stupid little attempt at espionage, but I was curious. "Well, what are they saying?"

Sebastian's face lit up at my interest. He went from a normal little weasel to an excited little weasel.

"Tina reports that Quinn wants to invite us over to eat dinner at the studio. Tess apparently thinks that we're already sick of them and they've been asking us for too much lately."

I felt a weird feeling in my stomach, like someone had just popped out from behind the couch and scared me. That wasn't what I had been expecting at all. I assumed that Quinn was grateful for our help and kindness, but I had thought that she was a lot less outgoing than Tess was. I'd barely talked to Quinn aside from the few times we'd said hey to each other in the alley and the group conversations we'd had on Thursday and Saturday.

She was a very intriguing woman, though. She seemed like she was super cultured and knowledgeable. I have a business degree and I've been a few places in my life, but the way Quinn spoke put her on another level.

Every word seemed to flow naturally, but if I'd been saying the same thing it would have taken at least a few seconds of calculating. I was impressed by, intimidated by, and attracted to her all at the same time. I'm pretty sure everyone realizes it now, but on Sunday I thought it was my little secret.

"Well, tell Tina that if they're willing to let all four of us come over then I'm down to have dinner there."

Sebastian squealed like a fucking fool and began to type furiously into his phone. I flopped down on the couch and put my feet in his lap. If we were going to stay at the shop until an acceptable time for dinner, we'd probably have to spend a couple of hours doing inventory between closing time and then….

* * *

I counted Sunday's dinner as a successful mission because I managed to get Quinn's number just before I left. To be fair, I also got Tina's and Tess', but I didn't really think I'd ever use those.

I still wasn't sure of what she thought of me. She'd been the perfect host, setting out folding chairs around a big light table in one of the rooms at the back of the studio and ordering enough Chinese food for everyone to go home with a full stomach. Even Sebastian looked satisfied.

I knew that she had made some comments about me being cute on Thursday when we'd just met, but that was when everyone was making jokes at my expense. I hadn't seen Quinn in such a joking mood since then, and I was pissed that it was Sebastian that usually made her laugh.

That was how I spent my Monday morning. I was so stressed out from meeting these new people and trying to get all of the summer merchandise ready for the displays that I could hardly focus.

My usual coping mechanism for stress is to clean everything until the floors shine and all surfaces are bare, so that's what I did. At one point, I even pushed Jake off of the sales counter where he was perched so that I could wipe it down with a towelette. A goddam scented towelette.

I was standing outside on the sidewalk with an old towel and a squeegee when I saw Tess coming around the corner with an iced coffee.

I wondered if I was the only person in the world who has to pee just looking at iced coffee. Then I pictured Quinn's head on Tess' body. Then I mentally slapped myself because Tess was basically still a baby as far I was concerned and that was a disgusting thought.

By the time she got to where I was standing, I must have been staring at her pretty intently because she waved her hand in front of my face.

"Yo, Earth to bike lady, anybody in there?"

I snapped out of my weird daydream.

"Yeah, yeah, just washing windows." I paused, looking up at the windows that clearly didn't really need to be washed. "Why're you here?"

She pulled a flash drive out of her back pocket and handed it to me.

"Design for the winter clearance poster. Puck asked me if I had a spare moment to do it last night. Sebastian texted me a mock-up."

"What the hell?"

I didn't even have time to filter my response to what she'd just told me, so I'd said the first thing that came to mind. That wasn't a good idea because Tess sort of just dropped the flash drive in my hands and walked around the corner.

Later, after seeing how great her design was, I felt really bad. Any art student who can make a Marvel Comic–esque devil riding a bicycle while wearing a scarf look cool deserves some recognition.

It was probably the least-cheesy poster we'd had to date, despite how stupid Sebastian's mockup had probably looked. My devil logo wearing a scarf? Really?!

That aside, I still dragged Puck and Sebastian up to my office and yelled at them for not asking me first. I was really freaking out about the collaboration between neighbors thing. I had a stupid crush on the boss from down the alley and up until the past week the only interaction I'd had with neighborhood business owners was a little bit of gossip while I waited for my food at various counters. The whole situation was disconcerting.

Sebastian apologized for not asking me first. Puck refused to apologize for his libido, but said that he was actually talking to her about graphic design for most of the time.

After they went back to the shop I sat in front of my computer and looked at the poster, wondering what to do.

It was obvious that Tess had worked pretty hard on it. They'd asked her less than 24 hours ago and the finished product was on the screen in front of me. I was filled with this sinking feeling of regret at how I had acted earlier. I wondered what had happened when Tess got back to the studio. Had she told Quinn what I'd done? Did Quinn even know that she was working on a poster for the shop? Feeling like a total shit head wasn't making my stress go away any time soon so I decided to text Tina.

I may have been afraid of her, but she was the gossip hub of the entire neighborhood after having only been working here for a week. I was sure that she knew about the poster and about my interactions with Tess on the sidewalk.

Tina responded within four minutes, and I considered changing her contact in my phone to "Social Vampire".

Apparently she'd known about the poster and had seen Tess come storming into the studio a little while ago. Tess had gone to one of the supply rooms and hadn't come back out. Also, according to her, Quinn was oblivious to everything.

That left me with a choice to make. I could either do nothing to make things right with Tess, subsequently severing my ties with the studio, or I could apologize to the poor kid and look like an idiot but save my relationship with them.

Looking back, that was dramatic, but on Monday I felt like not apologizing would cut me off from the neighbors forever.

* * *

Tuesdays was my day off.

I usually took Tuesdays off, so this was normal.

I usually avoided the shop at all costs on my day of, so that particular Tuesday was anything but normal.

Since I'd decided to apologize to Tess, there was no choice but to head over to the studio in the early afternoon and try not to make myself look like more of an ass.

Luckily, she was sitting at the front desk when I walked through the double doors. She looked up as soon as I walked in, and I winced when her blue eyes flashed with frustration.

"Hey." I leaned over the reception desk, tapping the envelope I held in my hands. "About yesterday, I was being a jackass."

She nodded, giving me silent permission to continue. I bit the inside of my mouth, obviously struggling to apologize because I am a prideful-ass-bitch.

Tess' eyes sparkled with amusement and I started talking to try and get her to stop that.

"Anyywayy, what I'm trying to say is Puck and Seb didn't bother to tell me you were doing the poster, or even ask me before they asked you to do it. But I really liked it! I did! You made my boring logo look festive and you're much better at fonts and curving type than any of us could ever hope to be."

She nodded at that. I took a mental note that art students were cocky.

"So basically, here's a check for the work you did. Accept it as my olive branch. And stay away from Puck because he may be eight years older than you, but he definitely will still try to get in your pants and that's upsetting, like, majorly."

Tess laughed at my last comment and took the envelope. I had no idea how much they were paying her at the studio, but I was glad to support her freelance career.

"Thanks for paying me. I'm already over what happened yesterday. I didn't even mean to speed off that quickly, I think it was just because I stayed up super late working on the design. I got a little excited."

That helped me relax, and I pushed my sunglasses over my eyes to add effect. "Phew."

"About Puck, I already turned down his attempt to get in my pants. The younger brother, on the other hand, is more my ballpark. If you really wanna make it up to me you'll get me the in on that one."

I made a fake gagging noise, but agreed to help her out with Jake. He was single, and he was nice, and I wouldn't mind a little cross-alley romance to offset my crush on Quinn.

"Hey you, stop flirting with my receptionist!"

Speak of the devil.

Quinn emerged from the back. She was wearing a dirty white apron over a striped shirt and simple black shorts, but she looked amazing. I could see Tina lurking around the corner, her baby bump giving her away.

I shivered, not sure if it was due to the presence of the proprietor or the lingering social vampire.

"Hey there, Quinn." I tried to sound super cool and casual, but I sort of felt like the scrappy underdog in a John Hughes film. Socially awkward and desperate for attention.

But hey, those guys usually had a happy ending, didn't they?

Quinn glided across the room to behind the desk, grabbing a clipboard and giving Tess a pat on the head.

"Nice to see you, Santana. Glad that you and Tess are all squared off. Catch ya later."

I shot a death glare towards the baby bump sticking out from the back corner. That was the last time I'd trust Tina to help me out with anything. Tess giggled loudly as I left the studio.

* * *

Wednesday morning was a rough one.

Puck had moved into a new apartment and Sebastian had used his connections to throw an elaborate housewarming party.

Before Tuesday night I'd thought my tolerance was pretty high, but whatever Sebastian had poured down my throat had knocked me on my ass. Despite getting me blackout drunk on a random Tuesday, he was still the greatest wingman of all time.

I'd gone home with two of the many girls that had filled Puck's new place and woken up alone this morning. If I could bag two girls and wake up with nobody to take care of, it was an awesome night. The less mess to deal with in the morning, the better.

Due to the massive hangover and my general dizziness from lack of sleep, I'd opted to walk to work. I didn't trust myself on any number of wheels that morning. I got to the door and found nobody waiting outside for me to let them in.

Half an hour later, all of my employees were still late. I unboxed the posters that had been delivered from a local printer the day before and set them out on a clean workbench. Upstairs in the kitchen, I made a bucket of soapy water and grabbed a few rags from a basket under the sink.

If those fuckers were going to be late, they were going to have to scrub the alley wall and put up the posters for winter clearance. More bums had been peeing there lately and I needed to get rid of last season's warm gloves, balaclavas, foot warmers and jackets to make room for the summer riding jerseys and shorts.

I also needed to make space on the floor for the new Gary Fisher Trek Transport. I hadn't had a cargo bike like it the year before, and after getting loads of questions all summer from local bike commuters, I decided to put in an order. I hung most of the non-cruiser or fixed-gear bikes from the ceiling to make room for other merchandise, but these bikes couldn't be hung and even a display of two of them would take up a lot of space.

It was a gamble to stock them because people either loved or hated cargo bikes like this, but I was hoping the fourteen-hundred dollar commuter cycles would be a hit this summer.

Personally, I couldn't stand most commuter bikes. I had some Felt, Electra, and Trek models on display, but Diablo mostly specialized in obscure fixies and high-end road bikes. We made a killing off of the local hipsters who wanted brightly-colored, easily customizable bikes, and local rich dads who wanted to re-live their days of athletic glory.

Despite making fun of them, I enjoyed helping customers pick out colored rims, wheels, and hubs for their fixed-gear beauties. The bikes were easy to build, easy to repair, and fun to personalize. Every season I would let my employees meet to design a couple of them to put on display in the windows. Marley was especially good at doing custom spray-jobs on the frames. I wondered if maybe I could ask Tess to help her out. They seemed to get along pretty well.

I was just about to send out a mass-text to my employees when I heard a few pairs of feet stumble through the back door.

Sure enough, Puck, Sebastian, Marley, Jake, Ryder, and Sam stumbled through the door. It was obvious that all of them had spent the night on some (hopefully) soft surface at Pucks' new apartment. They looked disheveled and were wearing essentially the same clothing as the night before.

When I pointed to the posters and the cleaning supplies, everyone groaned. Ryder and Sam looked confused.

Those two were relatively recent hires. Ryder was Marley's boyfriend who had recently quit a job at an auto shop and was looking for work. Puck and Sebastian had showed him the ropes and he'd gotten a handle on fixing bikes pretty quickly. We liked to make fun of him by calling him names like "Walker" or "Biker" or "Jogger" because I thought his name was dumb.

Sam was an old friend I'd known since Puck and I were in high school. He was trying to make it as an actor and had asked me for a job when his various impersonator gigs weren't paying the bills. He was great as a salesman, not so good as a mechanic. Still, I was happy to have him working for me.

"Beautiful morning, isn't it boys?" I was going to run in their obviously rough state as much as possible.

"Ughhhh, shuddup Sat'ana." Puck was an obvious hung-over mess.

"Yeah, just because you got some last night doesn't mean all of us were so lucky."

Sam belched after making his complaint and immediately made a grab for his stomach and his head.

"Motherfucker if you puke in that bucket of soapy water I'm going to fire you, then kick your ass." I wasn't kidding, either. For a group that probably had a hangover about as bad as me, they were being pitiful.

I sent them outside to complete their punishment in groups of three while I let the other half rest and do their actual jobs. Because I knew that most of my employees genuinely needed the money I was paying them, I never docked their pay if they were late. There were no timecards to punch at Diablo Cycles, but if you were late you had to pay with a punishment.

In the early afternoon, I texted Tess to let her know that the posters were up for the sale and that she should come by to see her work.

She arrived a half hour later with Tina and Quinn in tow. I met them out front for a little chat, and was amused by Tess' excitement to see her work hanging in public. Even though it was just a silly poster and graphic design wasn't going to be her concentration in school, she seemed to take a lot of pride in making money for her art.

Jake lingered on the sidewalk as we chatted. I nudged Tess.

"Psst, artsy girl. Invite him to join y'all for lunch. She blushed and nudged me back.

"Only if you come, too. My boss is totally gonna intimidate him but if you're there she'll be distracted. Come on, just join us."

I gulped. I remember that it felt like Tess had just tickled my sides for like fifteen minutes because everything in my stomach felt all weird. What did she mean by "distracted"? I'd spent so much of my time in Quinn's presence actively avoiding staring at her that I didn't know if she was staring in my direction.

Until then, I was trying to suppress my crush on the studio owner as much as possible. After Tess suggested that, though, I decided I'd test the waters during lunch.

Sure enough, lunch had gone as Tess predicted. After the young blonde woman had invited me and Jake to join the trio from the studio, she'd spent the whole walk to lunch talking to Jake. I walked with Quinn. She told me stories about random mishaps as they'd set up equipment in the studio and the horrors of spilled dark room chemicals. I reciprocated with tales of bad bicycle repairs and the explosion of a can of WD-40 after Sebastian had misplaced a cigarette in the dumpster while taking a smoke-break.

Tina lurked behind us, probably texting her mystery fiancée.

Lunch had gone as well as tacos and Mexican beer ever goes on a warm Wednesday afternoon. We all walked back to the alley together. Jake, Tess, and Tina walked ahead of me and Quinn. My short-haired companion had slipped her sunglasses back over her hazel eyes. Her smile was more relaxed than it had been on the way to lunch.

We'd spent the meal trying to come up with more ways for our two businesses to collaborate. Most of them were far-fetched jokes, but a few seemed like good ideas. I got the general impression that Quinn liked me, if only on a basic level of acquaintance.

She was as impressive as ever with her choice of words and taste in, well, everything, but she didn't intimidate me quite as much. I liked that we had a similar taste in fashion, food, and opinions on how to run a small business. She also wore a lot of loose-fitting shirts and shorts, and tended towards more basic colors. I sort of wanted to raid her closet.

That afternoon, I found myself sitting in my office just thinking about the woman down the alley. I was spending a lot more time thinking about Quinn than I had been during the couple of days before. I thought about the way her voice could go from high to low, how her hair always seemed to fall in her eyes completely on purpose, and the way she seemed to glide along almost every surface.

I wondered how she even saw through a camera lens with those jagged bangs and how a person could glide along a cobblestone alley when I usually tripped over my own feet.

Closing time came and went, and I found myself walking slowly past the brightly painted windows of the studio in the alley, thinking about when I'd see its owner next.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Thanks for reading! If anybody wants to see more of anything, leave a review. **

**I aim to please.**


End file.
